Excited state intramolecular charge transfer reaction in binary mixtures of water and tertiary butanol (TBA): alcohol mole fraction dependence

The excited state intramolecular charge transfer reaction of 4-(1-azetidinyl)benzonitrile (P4C) has been studied in water-tertiary butanol (TBA) mixtures at different alcohol mole fractions by using steady state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The ratio between the areas under the locally excited (LE) and charge transferred (CT) emission bands is found to exhibit a sharp rise at alcohol mole fraction approximately 0.04, a value at which several thermodynamic properties of this mixture is known to show anomalous change due to the enhancement of H-bonding network. The radiative rate associated with the LE emission also shows a maximum at this TBA mole fraction. Although the structural transition from the water-like tetrahedral network to the alcohol-like chain is reflected in the red shift of the absorption spectrum up to TBA mole fraction approximately 0.10, the emission bands (both LE and CT) show the typical nonideal alcohol mole fraction dependence at all TBA mole fractions. Quantum yield, CT radiative rate as well as transition moments also exhibit a nonideal alcohol mole fraction dependence. The time-resolved emission decay of P4C has been found to be biexponential at all TBA mole fractions, regardless of emission collection around either the LE or the CT bands. The time constant associated with the slow component (tau(slow)) shows a minimum at TBA mole fraction approximately 0.04, whereas such a minimum for the fast time constant, tau(fast) (representing the rate of LE --> CT conversion reaction) is not observed. The nonobservation of the minimum in tau(fast) might be due to the limited time resolution employed in our experiments.